Cholesterol ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Metabolic Diseases ; prevention & control ; Phytotherapy

Amino Acid Metabolism, Inborn Errors ; blood ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male

Emergencies ; Environmental Exposure ; standards ; Humans ; Maximum Allowable Concentration

Objective To study hemodynamics of cerebral blood flow in newborns with asphyxia.Method Bilateral cerebral electrical admittance plethysmogram(BCEAP) was used to explore characteristics of cerebral blood flow in 20 healthy newborns and 20 newborns with asphyxia respectively from first to fourth day after birth.Results Both the ratio of Hs to b-S(Hs/ b-S) and index of admittance differential loop(ADL) Ⅰ+Ⅱ decreased significantly in newborns with asphyxia compared to normal control from first to fourth day after birth(P

Objective:To investigate the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) at Ganshu (BL 18) and Shenshu (BL 23) on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1)/CD31 around the cerebral infarction focus in middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rats and the possible mechanism, thus to provide a new strategy for the treatment of cerebral ischemic stroke by acupuncture. Methods:A total of 180 healthy male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into a sham operation group, a model group, an acupoint group and a non-acupoint group, 45 rats in each group. MCAO model was established using the modified line-embolus method in all rats except for those in the sham operation group; rats in the acupoint group were treated with EA at Ganshu (BL 18) and Shenshu (BL 23); rats in the non-acupoint group were treated with EA at the control points; rats in other 2 groups were only subjected to bundling without treatment. Ten rats in each group were randomly selected on the 3rd day, the 14th day and the 21st day after acupuncture stimulation to test the neurological function impairment. The expression levels of CD31 and VEGF were also detected. Results:Compared with the model group and non-acupoint group, the neurological function score of the acupoint group was decreased at each time point, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05,P<0.01). The expressions of VEGF and CD31 in each group were the lowest on the 3rd day, reached the peak on the 14th day and still remained at high level on the 21st day. And the differences among groups were statistically significant both on the 14th day and the 21st day (P<0.05,P<0.01). Compared with the model group and the non-acupoint group, the expressions of VEGF and CD31 in the acupoint group were increased, and the differences were statistically significant (allP<0.05). Conclusion: EA at Ganshu (BL 18) and Shenshu (BL 23) can significantly improve the neurological function score of MCAO model rats, and shows protective effect on cerebral ischemia. The protective mechanism may be related to the up-regulation of CD31 and VEGF expression around the cerebral infarction focus in the MCAO model rats and induction of angiogenesis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of depression and anxiety in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA), to investigate whether there is a difference in the prevalence of depression and anxiety between PsA and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and to identify associated risk factors for depression and anxiety in PsA patients. METHODS: PsA and RA patients who visited Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology in Peking University First Hospital from May 2018 to Sep 2019 were recruited. Self-rating anxiety scale and self-rating depression scale were surveyed and compared between PsA and RA patients. Demographics and clinical features including age, gender, disease duration, disease activity score, psoriasis area and severity index (PASI), and medical application were collected. Power Doppler and grey-scale ultrasound of joints, tenosynovitis and enthesis were performed. Multivariate Logistic regression was used to identify the factors associated with mood disorders and the odds ratio of depression and anxiety between the PsA and RA patients. RESULTS: Among the 114 enrolled PsA patients, 37 (32.5%) had mood disorders, in which 36 (31.6%) with depression and 15 (13.2%) with anxiety. Compared with 201 RA patients, PsA patients showed greater odds for depression [adjusted OR (95%CI): 2.7 (1.1-6.4)]. Depression was more often observed in the PsA than in the RA patients (31.6% vs. 18.9%, P=0.011). The similar trend for anxiety was also observed, although the difference was insignificant (13.2% vs. 8.5%, P=0.185). Age (OR=0.95, P=0.008), psoriasis duration (OR=0.94, P=0.018), pain visual analogue scale (OR=1.47, P=0.011), PASI score (OR=1.07, P=0.007) and presence of ultrasound enthesitis (OR=4.13, P=0.009) were identified as factors associated with depression in the PsA patients. PASI score (OR=1.07, P=0.001) was identified as associated factor for anxiety in the PsA patients. CONCLUSION The prevalence of depression and anxiety is elevated in PsA patients. Depression is significantly more prevalent in PsA patients than in RA patients. Younger age, shorter psoriasis duration, worse pain and presence of ultrasound enthesitis are associated with depression, while severe psoriasis rash is associated with both depression and anxiety in PsA patients.
Anxiety/etiology* ; Arthritis, Psoriatic/epidemiology* ; Depression/etiology* ; Enthesopathy ; Humans ; Prevalence

OBJECTIVE: To observe the expression of aquaporin 4 (AQP4) in diffuse brain injury (DBI) of rats and to explore the corresponding effect of AQP4 for brain edema. METHODS: The rat model of DBI was established using Marmarou's impact-compression trauma model. Brain water content was measured by dry-wet weight method. Blood-brain barrier permeability was evaluated by Evans blue (EB) staining. Immunohistochemical method was used to observe the expression of AQP4. RESULTS: Brain water content increased after 3 h and peaked at 24 h after DBI. Brain EB content significantly increased and peaked at 12 h after DBI. The expression of AQP4 significantly increased after 3 h and peaked at 24 h after DBI, and the number of AQP4 positive astrocytes increased. CONCLUSION The increment of the permeability of blood-brain barrier and the expression of AQP4 may contribute to the development of brain edema in rat DBI. The change of AQP4 expression in astrocytes may also contribute to determine DBI.
Animals ; Aquaporin 4/metabolism* ; Astrocytes ; Blood-Brain Barrier/metabolism* ; Brain ; Brain Edema/metabolism* ; Brain Injuries/metabolism* ; Cell Membrane Permeability/genetics* ; Disease Models, Animal ; Permeability ; Rats ; Water

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of puerarin on angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1) and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in spontaneous hypertension rat (SHR).

METHODSSHRs, 12 weeks old, were randomly divided into four groups: the model control group (A), the Verapamil group (B), and the two puerarin groups (C and D) treated by low dose and high dose of puerarin respectively. After being treated for 3 weeks, total RNA from tissues of heart, aorta and kidney in rats were extracted and mRNA expression levels of AT1 and ACE2 were determined by RT-PCR.

RESULTSAs compared with Group A, the mRNA expressions of AT1 and ACE2 in heart tissue were lower in Group C, and those in kidney tissue were higher in Group D (all P < 0.05); ACE2 mRNA expression was higher in Group D than in Group C (P < 0.05); no significant differences of the two indexes in aorta were shown among various groups. Besides, mRNA expressions of AT1 and ACE2 in heart and kidney tissue were proved to be positively linearly correlated.

CONCLUSIONHigh dose puerarin could increase the mRNA expressions of AT1 and ACE2 in kidney, while low dose puerarin could decrease them in heart; there might be a feed back correlation between AT1 and ACE2.

Animals ; Disease Models, Animal ; Gene Expression ; drug effects ; Heart ; drug effects ; Humans ; Hypertension ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; Isoflavones ; administration & dosage ; Kidney ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Male ; Myocardium ; metabolism ; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A ; genetics ; metabolism ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; metabolism ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Inbred Dahl ; Receptor, Angiotensin, Type 1 ; genetics ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo compare the effect of reinforcing Shen method (RSM) and activating blood method (ABM) in treating osteoarthritis (OA) at the molecular level.

METHODSThe physical and chemical characteristics of components from respective recipes of RSM and ABM, and network features of component-target interaction network were analyzed by computer simulation methods including chemical space, molecular docking, and biological network, etc.

RESULTSThe chemical components of RSM and ABM were scarcely scattered with larger overlapping. Among established networks, the distribution of network features was partially similar in RSM and ABM. The average target number correlated with each component was 1.86 in RSM and 2.11 in ABM respectively. Each average target number was respectively correlated with 4.46 compounds and 3.93 compounds, reflecting multi-component and multi-target actions.

CONCLUSIONComputer simulation could intuitively trace out similarities and differences of two different methods and their interaction with targets, which revealed that the compatibility of RSM and ABM could have broader protein targets and potential synergism at the molecular level.

Computer Simulation ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Osteoarthritis ; drug therapy ; Phytotherapy ; methods

Objective The purpose of this study was to develop a high-throughput micro-plate radiobinding assay (RBA) of glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody (GAD-Ab) and to evaluate its clinical application. Methods 35labeled GAD65 antigen was incubated with sera for 24 h on a 96-well plate, and then transferred to the Millipore plate coated with protein A, which was washed with 4℃ PBS buffer, and then counted by a liquid scintillation counter. The GAD-Ab results were expressed by WHO standard unit (U/ml). A total of 224 healthy controls, 162 patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus(T1DM) and 210 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (T2DM) were recruited. A total of 119 TI DM and healthy cases with gradually changing GAD-Ab levels were selected to compare the consistency of micro-plate RBA with conventional radioligand assay (RLA). Blood samples were obtained from the peripheral vein and finger tip in 32 healthy controls, 35 T1DM and 24 T2DM patients, and tested with micro-plate RBA and then compared with the conventional RLA to investigate the reliability of finger tip sampling. Linear correlation,student's t-test, variance analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were performed using SPSS 11.5. Results (1) The optimized conditions of micro-plate RBA included 2 μl serum incubated with3 ×104 counts/min 35S-GAD for 24 h under slow vibration, antigen-antibody compounds washed 10 times by 4℃ PBS buffer, and radioactivity counted with Optiphase Supermix scintillation liquid. (2)The intra-batch CV of the micro-plate RBA was 3.8%- 10.2%, and the inter-batch CV was 5.6%- 11.9%. The linearity analysis showed a good correlation when the GAD-Ab in serum samples ranged from 40.3 to 664 U/ml and the detection limit of measurement was 3.6 U/ml. The results from Diabetes Autoantibody Standardization Program (DASP) 2005 showed that the sensitivity and specificity for GAD-Ab were 78% (39 positive among 50 new-onset T1DM) and 98% (2 positive among 100 healthy controls). The results of GAD-Ab obtained with micro-plate RBA and RLA were closely correlated (r=0.915,P<0.001) with a high concordance level of 97.5% and a Kappa value of 0.95. (3)TI DM and T2DM patients showed higher positive rates for GAD-Ab than the healthy controls(46.9% and 5.2% vs 0.89% ,X2=123.5 and 10. 1 ,P <0.001 and <0.01, respectively). (4)The consistency of GAD-Ab measurement with RBA using finger tip blood and RLA measurement using venous blood was 96.7% (r =0.946,P <0.001, Kappa value: 0.905). Conclusions The micro-plate RBA of GAD-Ab has high sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility, and can be measured with finger tip blood sampling. It might be a better alternative for clinical practice.